Former Homeland Security official to keynote 2012 CACR Cybersecurity Summit

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University's Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research has announced that Stewart Baker, former assistant secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, will serve as the keynote speaker at the 2012 CACR Cybersecurity Summit.

The Summit will begin at 9 a.m. Monday, Oct. 29, at the University Place Conference Center & Hotel at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. It is free and open to the public, making it one of the Midwest's premier conferences dedicated to cybersecurity issues.

The 2012 CACR Cybersecurity Summit will offer a variety of presentations on current and future trends in cybersecurity, including potential cyber-related challenges facing the next U.S. president.

This year's Summit is entitled "Mr. President, We Have a Situation: Advising the Next U.S. President on Cyberthreats."

"With American voters heading to the voting booths on Nov. 6, the economy and international unrest are sure to be at the forefront of their minds as they vote for president," CACR director and Distinguished Professor Fred H. Cate said. "But cyberthreats are very real and very dangerous and will become a growing issue of concern for whoever wins the White House next month. Stewart Baker will present an enlightening and critical address on what those cyberthreats are, where they come from and what we must do to protect ourselves from them."

Baker has led a distinguished career in government and private practice. He is the former general counsel of the National Security Agency and in 2005 was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as assistant secretary for policy for the Department of Homeland Security. He is the author of "The Limits of Trust: Cryptography, Governments and Electronic Commerce" and "Skating on Stilts: Why We Aren't Stopping Tomorrow's Terrorism."

Baker's testimony before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States revealed a frustration with the technology and tools used by federal agencies. Baker is an outspoken advocate for more efficient use of technology -- including electronic surveillance -- to track terrorist activities. Late last month, in a post to The Volokh Conspiracy, Baker called for government entities to strike back at those waging cyberattacks at the U.S.

"We should take the offense, surrounding and breaking into hacker networks to gather information about what they're stealing and who they're giving it to," Baker wrote. "That kind of information will help us prosecute criminals and embarrass state-sponsored attackers. It will also allow us to tell the victim of an intrusion with some precision who is in his network, what they want and how to stop them."